To Amarnath and labd about More on Rama Nama

[Guest guest]

Amarnath wrote:

 

....if i have FAITH, what is the need of a mantra at all?...

Dear Amarnath and labd ~ interesting discussion. If my faith was Total and

Complete and Unshakeable, I would probably be Self-Realized. On the other

hand, perhaps there are degrees of faith. We have some faith; we believe in

God/dess; we believe in our Guru; perhaps we believe in other things like the

Oneness of all things.

 

Yet, in my case, though I believe and have faith in all of these, I am like

a new tree that needs some help standing up straight, and perhaps a little

fence around me to keep critters from nibbling me. As I take in nourishment and

grow, I am stronger (my faith grows, to keep the analogy going). And as a

storm comes and shakes me around and makes my new leaves fall off too soon, I

feel weaker and a bit afraid (my faith is shaken). So I believe, being a mere

human, and a turtle devotee at that, the mantra helps me. To continue the

treeling analogy, t is like the ground in which my roots have been planted, or

perhaps the fence that protects me. I depend on it, especially when I am

struggling, which lately, is most of the time. Mantras, Yantras, Puja, Reciting the

however many number of names of a Deity, pictures of Amma and other Great

Souls, singing Bhajans ... these are our tools, these are our fences, these are

our ground, these are the wooden sticks to which we are attached until we

are strong enough to stand straight on our own.

 

Then one day, after a lot of work and growing, or perhaps in a mere instant,

we are There (Here/Everywhere). We have become strong and unshakeable, and

for any one of us, it is possible to reach the ultimate Goal. Jai Ma ~ Linda